Al Gore, China and Global Warming

Al Gore gave his famous slide show presentation Wednesday night in Santa Clara.

Al Gore, giving the slide show presentation made famous in the Oscar-winning documentary “An Inconvenient Truth,” called on Chinese entrepreneurs Wednesday night to help fight global warming.

Gore was the keynote speaker at the Hua Yuan Science and Technology Association conference in Santa Clara. Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr, who has made clean technology his latest focus, introduced Gore (and also plugged the venture capital firm’s new office in China).

Gore told the audience, a mix of Chinese and U.S. high-tech executives, that despite the danger of global warming, it also offered opportunity, adding that putting earth-friendly initiatives in place made good business sense.

He also said that China could surpass the United States in carbon dioxide emissions as soon as this year. And while he applauded some of China’s environmental efforts, including using wind energy to power the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and a reforestation project, he also criticized plans to build 500 more coal power plants.

Gore called on the audience to help change those plans. The earth “is our only home,” he said. “We will make our stand here.”